Facebook shuts down Snapchat-like app Lifestage and Groups app

Facebook has pulled the plug on Lifestage, a video-based social media app for teens it released last year.

The app was created by 20-year-old Facebook product manager Michael Sayman to allow high schoolers to share their profiles by posting video.

But the Snapchat-like app, which was available to users 21 years old and younger, never became massively popular and also raised privacy concerns.

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In a statement to SiliconBeat on Tuesday, a Facebook spokesperson said the app was removed from Apple’s app store on August 4.

The company did get some helpful feedback from launching the app, the spokesperson said, that is being used to improve visual and camera features on Facebook.

“Teens continue to make up an important part of the global community on Facebook, and we’ve learned a lot from Lifestage. We will continue to incorporate these learnings into features in the main Facebook app,” the spokesperson said.

Facebook has been trying to get users to post more video and has been releasing Snapchat-like features not only on the social network but on Instagram and its messaging apps. Instagram Stories, a feature that lets users post video and photos that disappear in 24 hours, has 250 million daily users.

But Lifestage isn’t the only app that Facebook is killing.

The company is also removing its Facebook Groups app, which will no longer be available after Sept. 1. Facebook said it’s shutting down the app because it will be focusing more on groups in its main app and website.